Nick of together time

"We have competition for places near enough for every position on the park, Boys know that they will have to be on their toes and need to play good week in week out to keep their place in the team."

Nick Phinn was an interested spectator at Brechin on Tuesday night as he remained an unused sub, but he is hoping to get 90 minutes on Saturday in the closed doors game against Airdrie United.  He was well placed to summarise the match though:-

"It was another hard game for the boys. Brechin played really really well and I'd rather have games like that than games where you are on top all the time. Another good test because Brechin passed the ball about lovely on a good pitch.

"The gaffer told us that we need to be a bit more ruthless in the final third of the pitch. The final pass and final ball could be better and something that we can look forward to putting right in the next game."

It will be a different eleven that will start against the Diamonds but that is only good competition said Nick:-

"We have competition for places near enough for every position on the park, Boys know that they will have to be on their toes and need to play good week in week out to keep their place in the team."

Nick is only one of four of the current squad who was in Austria with Jim McIntyre in 2008 and some of his team mates have experienced the Alpine training grounds with other clubs as well.

"Most of the boys know what to expect - it is very much the middle of nowhere. The facilities are great and the pitches were lovely last time so here's hoping they are the same again and we will get a lot of ball work."

After two pre seasons where Northumberland was as far as the team travelled Nick knows that to be away together 24/7 is tremendous for team bonding.

"You get to know everybody, we will gel as a team and eating meals together allows the new boys to settle in better."

The SPL season will follow pretty quickly after the Austrian experience and Nick is hoping to add to his short tally of three SPL games that he managed in 2005-06:-

"I hope I can get a few games. I have played against the Old Firm and there's not many SPL teams that I have never played against. You look forward to testing yourself against these teams week in week out rather than the odd cup game.

Nick Phinn v Falkirk in SPL March 2006

"It is going to be a lot harder for us this season. Every game is going to be massive for us but fingers crossed we can get off to a great start with the home game against St Mirren."